M. H. Abrams's Theory Of Criticism

The origins of criticism can be traced back to 5th century B.C in the works of Plato. Criticism developed overtime and with the advent of the 20th century I.A Richards for the first time talked about the role of the readers. With the arrival of Richards, Eliot and Leavis on the critical scene, modern criticism took a different turn. M.H Abrams too was a critic and a teacher of the 20th century. He was an American literary critic and is popularly known for his works on Romanticism. One of his ground breaking work is The Mirror and the Lamp: romantic theory and critical traditions where he celebrated the Romantics and draws on the influence of the author’s life and feelings on the work. He brings forth the contrast in understanding literature

A good literary theory according to Abrams contains the attributes of preciseness scope and coherence. He stresses on the importance of criticism of the past tradition as its impact is seen in the works of a present critic. Here, his view is similar to that of Mathew Arnold who also stressed upon the importance of the past in understanding a text . According to him, good artistic works are produced only when the critics strongly disagrees with the views of the artist. A piece of art can be evaluated from varied perspectives. Many writers who undertook the task of tracing the history or the orientation of Aesthetic theory failed due to the unsystematic procedure adopted by them. Abrams presents a more systematic method consisting of four coordinates around which an Aesthetic theory evolves. He sets out four pillars or elements of a work of art namely- Universe, The work of art itself, Artist and the audience. Modern criticism includes all these four elements. Earlier criticisms were said to be ‘chaotic’ and ‘wavering’ since like the sciences , arts cannot come into definite conclusion as arts deals with human lives. With the introduction of this four elements criticism assumes a systematic structure. The ‘work’ refers to the artistic

It finds its origin in the works of Plato. Plato in his theory of mimesis, stated that all art is mimetic and imitates life . He attacked art because of its inability to get to the root of the things. For him, art was twice removed from reality. Further, Abrams discusses the idea mimesis by bringing in Socrates’s views on imitation as represented by Plato in his book Republic. Socrates through a concrete example of a bed and carpenter established the fact that art is removed from the reality. The bed is constructed by the carpenter as a result of his imitation of the idea of bed given by God. This further separates itself from reality when the artist reproduces the picture of the bed by imitating the carpenter. Thus, art is thrice removed from